Politics

Thousands of Algerians gathered on Friday chanting slogans against ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term, despite the defiant leader’s warning of the risk of “chaos”.
Waving Algeria’s green, white and red flag, men and women converged on the city’s landmark Grand Post Office square, as youths staged a

Burkina Faso’s president appointed a new prime minister on Monday, three days after the surprise resignation of the West African nation’s government.
President Roch Kabore nominated Christophe Dabire, a former Commissioner for the West African Economic and Monetary Union.
Dabire was also formerly the Health Minister, Secondary Education Minister and President of

Wheelchair-bound Gabon President Ali Bongo chatted and smiled with ministers on state television on Tuesday after returning from a stroke-induced medical leave during which the army foiled a coup attempt.
Bongo suffered the stroke at a conference in Saudi Arabia on Oct. 24 and was recuperating in Morocco from November. He

Soldiers patrolled Zimbabwe city streets on Tuesday and confrontations with demonstrators threatened to boil over, as the government offered public workers more money a day after protests over the country’s collapsing economy turned deadly.
Monday’s unrest, during which several people died, followed sharp fuel price hikes decreed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Impatient

Burkina Faso has declared a state of emergency in several northern provinces, a government spokesman said on Monday, as Islamist groups intensify attacks in areas bordering Mali.
Security has deteriorated in the West African country as jihadists seek to increase their influence across the poorly policed scrublands of the Sahel region

Gabon’s President Ali Bongo will leave Saudi Arabia, where he was hospitalized last month after suffering a stroke, to continue treatment in Morocco, his wife said on Tuesday.
Bongo has not been seen in public since being admitted to hospital during a conference on Oct. 24. Gabon’s top court ruled earlier

Nigeria’s main opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar said on Monday he will boost oil sector investment, cut costly fuel subsidies and double the size of the economy by 2025 if he wins next year’s presidential election.
The businessman and former vice president portrayed himself as a champion of the private sector as

Zimbabwean businessman Munya Chihota’s face lights up when he recalls taking part in a march last year with tens of thousands of people calling for then-president Robert Mugabe to step down.
The march came after the military had briefly taken over, and days before Mugabe was forced from power on November

No matter who wins Madagascar’s presidential election next week, Soloniaina Rakotomamonjy wants the victor to bring jobs to a country shackled by poverty despite immense resource wealth.
In an irony in one of Africa’s poorest countries, the result of the first round of voting could hinge in part on which of

Tens of thousands of Congolese rallied on Saturday in support of President Joseph Kabila’s preferred successor, two months before an election that could mark the country’s first democratic transition of power.
Kabila selected Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, a former interior minister, in August to represent his ruling coalition, the FCC, in the